Bucs Safety To Receive Substantial Raise In 2023

When you play well, you get paid well. And Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. has certainly played well. For his troubles, he will get a salary bump in the 2023 season. As part of the NFL-NFL Players Association 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), there is a specific clause that most players on their rookie deals are especially aware of. That would be Article 7, Section 4, which outlines the proven player escalators. This clause calls for players drafted outside of the first round of the NFL Draft to receive increases on their year four salaries if they meet certain criterion.

Bucs Will Have To Give Winfield A Raise Due To The CBA

Level One PPE is earned if a player plays in at least a certain percentage of his team’s offensive or defensive snaps for two of his first three seasons, or if he maintains that average over the course of those three seasons. That threshold for second-rounders is 60% and 35% for third- through seventh-rounders. Level two is achieved if the player participates in at least 55% of his team’s offensive or defensive snaps in each of his first three seasons. Level three is attained if the player is selected to a Pro Bowl on the first ballot in any of his first three seasons.

Per Over The Cap, Winfield played in 97% of the Bucs’ defensive snaps in 2020, 77% in 2021 and 68% in 2022. Since he has not been elected to a Pro Bowl on the first ballot, he will fall into the level two PPE category. That level’s salary, per the CBA, is the equivalent of his original round restricted free agent tender plus an additional $250,000. Over The Cap currently estimates the 2023 ROFR RFA offer to be $2,629,000.

That means Winfield is projected to have his salary increase from the $1,606,435 he was originally set to receive under his rookie contract to $2,995,000, for a well-deserved $1,388,565 raise. The Bucs will also have to account for this new salary increase in their 2023 salary cap tabulation.

Winfield In Line For Big Payday From Tampa Bay Soon

Bucs S Antoine Winfield, Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Of course, all of this belies the eventual payday Winfield is in line to receive next offseason. As he has quickly ascended to becoming one of the top safeties in the league, he will soon command a contract that tops $17.5 million per year as one of the top-five highest-paid safeties in the league. He will most likely have to wait another one to two years for that particular payday. His cap number for 2023 will be an extremely team friendly $3,713,578, even with the performance escalator raise.

And while Winfield  is set to be an unrestricted free agent following this upcoming season, the Bucs would still have the option to franchise tag him for a slightly more palatable number (currently, the franchise tag for safeties is projected to be $14,472,000 in 2023 and will most likely go up in 2024). All this is to say this raise in salary for Winfield is the first in what should be a regular line of increases over the next few years. No matter whether it is a franchise tag or a long-term contract, expect the  to be suiting up for the Bucs in 2024 and beyond.

Over his three years with the Bucs after they took him in the second round of the 2020 draft, Winfield has accumulated 262 combined tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks, four interceptions, 15 passes defensed, five forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries across 42 starts.

In 2022, Winfield expanded his repertoire by playing the majority of his snaps in the slot as a nickel corner. His versatile skillset allowed him to excel in that role, although there has been debate as to whether he is best suited to remain in his natural deep safety role, where his play is truly exceptional.

From Winfield’s perspective, the NFL tends to value deep safeties more than slot corners on the open market. And while he is a team player who will line up wherever his coaches need him, his representatives will surely market him as a safety who can do it all.

The post Bucs Safety To Receive Substantial Raise In 2023 appeared first on Pewter Report.